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F E A T U R E

When Bad Service Happens to Good People

April 15, 2002
By Dave Molta

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	How To Criticize Constructively

Few things in life rile our emotions as much as bad service. Maybe it's from a waiter who fails to see to your needs during an expensive meal or from an auto dealer who insists your vehicle's performance is within manufacturer specifications even though you know something is wrong. Sometimes, it makes you want to throw up your arms and scream.

IT professionals often find themselves in a unique position regarding service issues. We are, after all, in the business of providing critical services to our internal customers, and most IT organizations spend a fair amount of time focusing on service quality. At the same time, we are dependent on others for service. And when our providers don't come through, we can't either.


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How you respond to poor service says a lot about you and how you feel about your job and your employer. Some people can receive lousy service and still respond with a polite "thank you." Others are so obnoxious that no matter how good the service is, they will find something to complain about. Fortunately, most of us fall somewhere between these two extremes. So, is there a right way to deal with problems, or does every situation require a unique approach?

The Service Complexity Continuum

Most IT managers use many types of services. Some, like traditional telephone service, are relatively easy to measure from a service-quality perspective. Because we have a lot of experience with phone service, we can assess it easily. Quality telephone service means 100 percent availability of dial tone, the ability to dial any number and accept any incoming call, and the delivery of clear audio. If the service doesn't meet these expectations, we can clearly articulate the problem, and there is likely to be a standard solution.

However, for other services, service quality isn't as easy to quantify. Take cellular telephony: Our experience with this service is limited to a few years, during which the service has evolved rapidly. If cell calls are occasionally dropped as we drive, does this surprise us to the degree service interruption would on a traditional phone connection? No, and that makes it difficult to hold the service provider to a consistent set of performance expectations.

The maturity of a technology isn't the only factor that can affect our ability to establish clear service expectations. A second consideration is the underlying complexity of the service. For example, a server operating system performs many functions, some better than others. Thus, an OS that performs well as an e-mail server might not do so well as a Web server. So to what standard do we hold the OS developer? And can we predict all the ways we might use the OS? Clearly, many software systems, by virtue of their complexity, make it much more difficult for us to negotiate acceptable service parameters.

Expectations and Measurement

The SLA (service-level agreement) is the standard vehicle through which two parties negotiate expectations related to service. However, SLAs are notoriously difficult to implement in the real world, especially when the service is unique or lacks widely agreed-on performance-measurement metrics. And even when standards are agreed on, it's not always clear whose responsibility it is to measure and enforce those standards, or what the consequences are if the service provider fails to measure up. Service agreements help, but they don't solve all our problems.

If a service is critical to the performance of your organization, you must figure out a way to measure and track its effectiveness. Measure, then document, then measure some more. By taking these assessments seriously, you hold the service provider to the highest possible standard.

Remember, these companies can almost always provide better service--if they are willing to allocate sufficient resources. By openly measuring performance and maintaining a detailed paper trail, you encourage them to allocate these resources. This is true not only of external service providers: In many organizations, the quality of an internal network services organization can be elevated by compiling and posting measures of service quality.